DEUCE BIGALOW - MALE GIGOLO

SYNOPSIS:Fish tank cleaner Deuce Bigalow (Rob Schneider) dreams of
moving out of his bad neighbourhood, but his earnings are meagre
and things get worse when he loses his job. Heís hired to
clean the pond at an upmarket apartment block, where he meets
Antoine (Oded Fehr) an equally upmarket gigolo. When Antoine has
to leave urgently on business, he leaves Deuce in charge of his
apartment. Things go wrong almost immediately, and Deuce finds
himself in need of a lot of money - fast. Almost by accident, he
falls in with self-styled "man madam" T J Hicks (Eddie
Griffin) and starts plying his trade as a gigolo. In the process,
he meets Kate (Arija Bareikis), the girl of his dreams; and
Detective Chuck Fowler (William Forsythe) a cop out to bust him.

"The poster proclaims 'From the producers of The Waterboy
& Big Daddy.' This isnít filling me with hope for my
outing to Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (is there any other kind?).
But, perhaps because my expectations were so low, I was
pleasantly surprised by this decidedly lowbrow film. When I say
pleasantly surprised, I mean there are actually some funny scenes
in the thin and wildly improbable tale; unlike the efforts of
certain other Saturday Night Live alumni. Perhaps itís
because Rob Schneider as the eponymous Deuce brings a degree of
self-deprecation to the project thatís almost refreshing.
The plot itself is just plain dumb and is little more than an
excuse for a series of set-piece gags - mostly at the expense of
the disabled. These 'jokes' are really cheap shots and
often plain offensive, with no effort being made to even
correctly identify the handicaps being lampooned, let alone
understand them. But when Schneider and co. manage to break away
from this type of so-called comedy, they do manage to produce
some funny moments. For my $12.50, this isnít enough to
recommend the film, but at least it rises above some other dross
thatís been fed to us this year. Deuce Bigalow is, as
youíd expect, largely a vehicle for Schneider. However, he
does get some good support from Eddie Griffin as T J, the pimp
with a vocabulary all his own. But poor William Forsythe is
treated very badly by the script. While I canít say I
exactly enjoyed Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, it does have some
(albeit few) redeeming features."David Edwards